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Comment by sushshshsh | Hacker News Reader

Love how when the same restrictions are imposed in the USA, everyone starts talking about "doing the right thing"

Not everyone on HN is from the US, so I don't see how your point is relevant.

As a counterpoint, I have never been made to realize the US origin of HN as in recent times. The "hacker" in the name is gradually being swallowed by the "news"-mainly US

So perhaps you were downvoted for being vague. But certainly things like the supreme court recently refusing to hear an important case on qualified immunity have me concerned that USA-ians are whistling past the graveyard right now.

They are also being down voted for trying to make this a conversation about the USA instead of about Hong Kong.

There's a "but America" comment in all of these threads, usually more than one. It's boring and played out. I just downvote and move on.

USA is relevant because any discussion of HK democracy or capitalism places it along an axis between the virtues championed, globally, by China and the US. Otherwise, what discussion is there to have about a Chinese city that the Chinese are dealing with as they see fit?

Sure, if this comment actually WAS about that axis, and about how the UK and the US have taken a step back from their international engagement, THAT would have been an interesting and useful addition to the conversation. But, that isn't what this comment was.

There's a time and place for that conversation and it isn't this.

why?

Because this conversation is about Hong Kong. And by trying to make this conversation about America's failings, you make it hard for us to have a conversation about Hong Kong.

Keep watching. Within a very few days, there will be an article on HN about BLM, or about police monitoring of US citizens, or about the NSA evesdropping. If you want to criticize the US for having less freedom than the label says, feel free to do it there. (And there we can yell at people trying to bring up Hong Kong, telling them that they're off topic.)

Whataboutism is a distraction. This article is about the issues in Hong Kong, "what about similar things happening in country x,y or z" is an attempt to derail this important conversation.

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